*UPDATE* Psychological Effects of Heart Rate Monitor Use Study

12/21/2010: Preliminary results were reported at Indoor Cycle Instructor in October 2010. Manuscript in preparation. Once published, results will be made available on this site and at ICI.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

"I Wanna Hear It" -- Song requests?

As you may have observed, my music style is slowly evolving -- maybe it has something to do with the fact that what you hear once a week, I hear 4-5x per DAY. Six months ago, my "power songs" were happy hardcore techno Madonna remixes -- now we're rockin' the Gladiator soundtrack on a regular basis. Awesome.

And has this phenomenon has been unfolding, lots of you have been sharing obscure music artists -- and most of the time, they really work. It makes sense, really. My theory behind ride choreography (yes, I plan the ride first - then the music -- then obsessive-compulsively change everything back and forth for hours) is that I play stuff I'd want to hear as a rider - a beat to drive my upstrokes, a tempo to pick me up when I'm sluggish, a tune so friggin' good that I hope even the most tedious seated climb never ends... if only to hear more of that song. I have an omnipresent ear for new material -- clothing stores, (gluten-free) pizza joints, you name it.

When I hear something that has potential, I pop it onto my iPod and listen to it on repeat (sometimes for months!) until I figure out what to do with it. Some are obvious hits; however, some of the most "successful" songs (i.e., the ones people tell me they love) began as "what on EARTH are you going to do with this? This song is ridiculous..." and required 3-4 months of incubation. The best example of that is the triple set of jumps to the happy hardcore remix of Gangsta's Paradise -- seriously, WHY does that exist?

In any event, I give you all of this background to illustrate that I'm open-minded. If there's a tune you'd love to hear in a ride, tell me about it. Worst case scenario: I'll at least attempt to integrate it into my pre- and post-ride selections.

Leave your comments here or email me at melspin@gmail.com

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